Analysts predict a further 14% jump for spring 2022 on top of next month’s scheduled £139 riseMillions of households could face a second record jump in energy bills next spring, on top of the £139 increase due next month, as the global gas crisis conti…
Kwarteng admits ‘difficult winter’ ahead as energy bills soar
Business secretary says vulnerable customers will be protected, as he distances himself from universal credit cutKwasi Kwarteng has said it “could be a very difficult winter”, with families facing rising energy bills, as he sought to distance himself f…
Child poverty now costs Britain £38bn a year, says new independent report
Despite Conservative claims to have reduced childhood deprivation, the burden on taxpayers has soared over the past eight yearsThe cost of child poverty has soared over the past eight years under the Conservatives and has now reached £38bn a year, acco…
Universal credit cut is a cruel blow for the poor | Letters
The planned abolition of the £20 uplift is the latest attack on claimants caught in an unfair benefits system, says Mark Newbury. Plus letters from Jane Middleton and Manuela GonnermannYour editorial (14 September) is correct in highlighting the link b…
‘£3k just to hold the bed’: Exorbitant Covid care costs push Indians into poverty
A struggling healthcare system and inflated prices mean hospital treatment can result in a lifetime of debt for manyCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageAnil Goel remembers the night in May when he received a call from his desper…
Marcus Rashford urges government to keep £20 universal credit top-up
Footballer and poverty campaigner says ministers should focus on efforts to end the ‘child hunger pandemic’Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe footballer Marcus Rashford has urged the government to end threats to social secu…
A tale of two towns: Rochdale and Braintree expose UK’s uneven asylum system
Relatively wealthy Braintree has supported just one asylum seeker in recent months while deprived Rochdale hosted 734Labour councils house eight times as many asylum seekers as Tory areas, analysis findsSituated in the heart of rural Essex, Braintree o…
‘Swazi gold’: grandmothers in Eswatini growing cannabis to make ends meet
In the poverty-stricken kingdom, an older generation rely on growing marijuana to feed children orphaned by Aids epidemicIn Nhlangano, in the south of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), the illegal farming of the mountainous kingdom’s famous “Swazi gold” i…
Housing association L&Q is still failing residents years after exposé
London & Quadrant tenants say problems with damp, mould and vermin in their homes are being ignoredSocial housing tenants claim their health is being affected by damp, mould and vermin because their complaints have been ignored by one of Britain’s …
Wishful thinking will not close Britain’s widening inequality gap
Covid has made us poorer and increased wealth and educational disparities. Optimism alone cannot fix thisCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageOptimism helps get us through tough times, and the Covid pandemic has had plenty of tho…